Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

Book Description

Attila Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant — if only Grant came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. His opponents: a police chief who learned how to be a detective via dubbed episodes of Columbo; a deputy so dense he was known only by his Hungarian nickname, Mound of Asshead; and a forensics expert-cum-ballet teacher who wore a top hat and tails on the job.

Part Pink Panther, part The Unbearable Lightness of Being, part Slap Shot, this uproariously funny, award-winning book tells the remarkable story of a crime spree that galvanized a forlorn nation and made a nobody into a somebody — a tale so outrageous that it could only be true.

--WINNER, Borders 2004 "Original Voices" Non-fiction Book of the Year.

--FINALIST, 2005 Edgar Award, Best Fact Crime.

--A New York Times "Editors' Choice"

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic, Hilarious...and a Bit Chilling!.......2007-05-24

This is a well-written, well-researched book that captures a unique moment in history and a bizarre character who's also a product of his place and time. Rubinstein goes the extra mile to follow the thread of this true-crime story, and his engaging prose takes you with him.

Great Read!.......2007-04-11

Excellent book! Great true crime story that is action packed, and very funny...plus a little bit of history!
Highly recommend this book!

An Extremely Entertaining Read.......2007-01-04

Julian Rubinstein tells the true story of Attila Ambrus, the Transylvanian-born backup hockey goalie in Budapest who also lived the life of a pelt smuggler and daring bank robber between practices and games. It was a story the author first heard about in a short news piece in Sports Illustrated in 1999 and on writing the book he's able to set the story in hilarious style against the backdrop of the changing Hungary and Romania of the early 1990s. At one point Ambrus is described as "a sizable conundrum within a notable contradiction, the best unpaid hockey goalie in a filthy-rich slum town". The photo section in the middle, the appendices and interview with the author at the end, and the references throughout to world events the west would be familiar with serve to remind us that this is largely a work of non-fiction despite all the absurdity. A great read especially for those who have visited or have lived in this part of the world in these changing times from Socialism.

A true story of the Early Transition from Socialism.......2006-10-11

As an economist who has often worked on the transition from socialism, I found this book to be the best single source of what really went on---OK, that's partly because the book is hilarious and has one of the best book covers of all time. But Rubinstein should have won a Pulitzer prize for managing to capture what was going on behind the scenes on the socio-economic front in the early years of the transition in such an entertaining way. Let's hope Atilus escapes and there's a sequel.

enjoyable, true adverture.......2006-09-18

The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the story of Attila Ambrus, the infamous bank robber of Budapest during the 1990s. The biography follows Ambrus from his childhood as an ethnic Hungarian in Romania to his escape to Hungary, through his years as an unpaid goaltender for a local professional hockey team while moonlighting as a fur pelt smuggler and eventual bank robber, to his eventual capture, escape from prison, and recapture. It was an interesting life, during an interesting time (the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe as it was replaced by corrupt, crony-capitalism), captured well by Julian Rubinstein.

By robbing only banks and post offices owned by the government, widely perceived to be corrupt, and eschewing actual violence, Ambrus becomes a folk hero, a modern-day Hungarian Robin Hood, though rather than giving his takings to the poor, he seems to have enriched only the local mafia-run casinos.

The story was obviously well researched, with full and open access to Ambrus and many of the other players in his story. Through the first third of the book, Rubinstein's style is a bit over-the-top, as if he were trying to capture our attention and set the atmosphere in every sentence with unusual details and strange analogies. But eventually the writing settles down to a good, clear, rollicking narrative.

Beyond just the story of Ambrus and his bank-robbing, Rubinstein does a great job placing him in the context of very unusual place and time. After reading the book, I felt I had a real sense of what it was like to live in Budapest during the 1990s, or grow up as a minority in Romania, much more so than if I had read a history book.

While the story doesn't have the weight for me to consider it a masterpiece (and receive my 5 star rating), the book is both a fun read and a great way to learn about the travails of life in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. I highly recommend it for anyone.

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber : A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

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Ballad of the Whiskey Robber : A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
Julian Rubinstein
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0719563046

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Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
Julian Rubinstein
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTZ5K2

Product Description

The USA Patriot Act One is of the most controversial and possibly one of the most misunderstood laws Congress has ever enacted. For many Americans, it is synonymous with an egregious and unjustifiable suspension of the Bill of Rights. Others, troubled but more cautious, identify the Patriot Act with the grant of unprecedented powers that put civil liberties at some risk. Many who reject these concerns nonetheless accept their underlying assumptionthat the Patriot Act does indeed give the federal government a package of powerful new search and surveillance tools. In Rethinking the Patriot Act, Stephen J. Schulhofer explains the act's most important provisions and reviews the best information currently available to gauge their usefulness and their effects in practice. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Schulhofer argues that much of the Patriot Act was essential, and some of it, if not essential, was reasonably defensible. In fact, the act includes provisionsseldom noticedthat add new protections for certain civil liberties, extend new benefits to certain immigrant groups, and provide new remedies for violations of individual rights. Nonetheless, Schulhofer concludes, many of the act's new powers are far too broad, and even where the case for broad powers is strong, they were typically conferred with little effort to assure transparency and accountability.

Book Description

Miller's LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT, 14th Edition is the most comprehensive and up-to-date environmental science text on the market. It has the most balanced approach to environmental science instruction, with bias-free comparative diagrams throughout and a focus on prevention of and solutions to environmental problems. Tyler Miller is the most successful author in academic writing on environmental science because of his attention to currency, trend setting presentation of content, ability to predict student and instructor needs for new and different supplements, and his ability to retain the hallmarks on which instructors have come to depend. The content in the 14th edition of LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT is everything you have come to expect and more. In this edition, the author has added the "How Would You Vote?" feature, which is an application of environmental science-related topics in the news. Students apply their environmental science knowledge from the book to a Web activity, which helps them investigate environmental science issues in a structured manner. They then cast their votes on the Web. Results are then tallied. Also found at the Miller website is the much used "Updates on Line." Updated twice a year with articles from InfoTrac College Edition service, CNNÂ® Today Video Clips, and Web links, instructors can seamlessly incorporate the most current news articles and research findings to support text presentations. This is a time saver for instructors and part-time teachers who can quickly determine what ancillary materials they want to utilize in just minutes. As with the last edition, this text is packaged with a free Student CD-ROM entitled "Interactive Concepts in Environmental Science." Organized by chapter, the CD gives students links to relevant resources, narrated animations, interactive figures, and prompts to review material and test themselves.

Customer Reviews:

made me angry.......2007-09-23

I have not read the whole book yet, and I have the 2004 edition (#13). I truly hope the newer editions are better. This is a review of Chapter 1 only.

The chapter annoyed me. It even made me angry. It is milquetoast, unable to just say we, the human population, is depleting too many resources to be sustainable. Adding the statement "other analysts do not believe we are living unsustainably" to an Environmental Science textbook is like saying "some people believe the earth is flat," in a geography textbook, or, something that unfortunately seems to happen in some biology textbooks these days, "evolution is just one theory, there are other theories as well, some experts believe god created all life on earth as it is today." A similar statement was made in part 1-6, "Is our Present Course Sustainable?." "Are things getting better or worse? Experts disagree..." Experts paid by huge resource exploiting corporations? Experts who like to bury their heads in the sand?

There were a number of interesting facts in the text that the general statements did not reflect. These inconsistencies really got to me. It seemed as if it were trying to write about what was outside the box but writing from inside the box. I particularly disliked the sentence that included: "... how much more we need to do to help make the earth more sustainable..." Wait a second, if you were writing from a viewpoint that "Nature does not exist just for us and we only think we are in charge. We need the earth, but the earth does not need us," how can you talk about "making the earth more sustainable?" The earth is what it is and is bountiful, it is our resource exploitation and pollution that are not sustainable for human survival.

I found the first part of the side bar "Free-Access Resources and the Tragedy of the Commons" quite interesting, but the second part on solutions seemed to missing a lot. The first of the two listed solutions was: "Use free-access resources at rates well below their estimated sustainable yields or overload limits by reducing population, regulating access, or both." It then went on to say how this is rarely used since it means we would have to establish and enforce rules and regulations, and it is hard to figure out a sustained yield. But it doesn't mention that educating people about these resources that they take for granted could go along way. Also not mentioned is that regulating the devices that allow people to exploit these resources (such as clean air, the atmosphere, water and wildlife) so easily and unthinkingly would be much easier than regulating their actual use. A lot of the resources mentioned are being depleted by pollution not use in a strict sense. The other solution listed is: "Convert free-access resources to private ownership," since if someone owns something they will protect it, has so many problems which are not addressed. The books lists the problem with this solution as being that "it is not practical for global common resources (such as the atmosphere, the open ocean, most wildlife species, and migratory birds) that can not be divided up and converted to private property." What about the fact that people do exploit the resources that they do own, and the fact that it would no doubt cause even more problems with poverty, and sharing things in common is what brings people together as a community (e.g. they all go to the park and see each other), and so many other problems that I get overwhelmed just thinking about them.

There was a lot of talk about overpopulation as a major problem, but not so much talk about overconsumption by certain parts of the population, even though there were sections on this. There was a section on ecological foot print and how the people in the USA have such a large one, but this didn't seem to get integrated into the text. There was also the statement: "Thus poor parents in a developing country would need 70 - 200 children to have the same lifetime resource consumption as 2 children in a typical U.S. family," but there was a lot of emphasis on population as a major problem and how in underdeveloped countries populations are growing as such a fast rate, when slight rises in US middle/upper class populations can make so much more difference. It felt to me like too much blame poor people in poor countries when it is people in the US and corporations based in the US enriching people in the US who are causing so much of the problems, even exporting our TV and advertisements to other countries which makes people want our unsustainable lifestyle.

There was also no mention of empowering women as a major tool to deal with high birthrates. There is overwhelming evidence that when you empower women to choses when they want to get pregnant and give them education and job skills birthrates do down. The paragraph on why poor people have so many children basically says the reason is to have their labor, with no mention of lack of birth control or power of women to make choices. It also seemed racist and disrespectful.

While we are on the subject of racist and disrespectful, what is with the developed and developing labels? The societies in all countries are developed, it is just industrial manufacturing and certain kinds of resource exploitation that are not as developed.

One last perhaps picky complaint. Figure 1-13 mentions "Traditional decision making" and "traditional societies" but it really does not mean traditional, it means modern industrialized hierarchical societies. This may seem picky but I feel it really does matter, we need to keep remembering that these societies we are living in are new, not traditional. True traditional societies did merge social, economic and environmental issues when making decisions, in fact, they did so in all aspects of living their lives. What we need to do is get back to them.

Policical retoric and not science.......2007-04-29

The state of Washington mails each registered voter a "Voter's Pamphlet" with statements for and against each initiative and candidate.

This book has the same format as a page for initiative X complete with rebuttals, but no page against initiative X.

This is completely one sided political rhetoric.

Why are high school students being given 815 pages of brainwashing?

I can understand some political extremest writing this book, but why would the Mercer Island school district buy this book?

I know science.
This ain't science.
Maybe political science.

Good Practical Book.......2007-04-20

Being a chemistry student, I've read this book as part of my classes. I've got to say, it's an excellent book, definitely worth reading by itself. It offers concrete, pragmatic solutions and an unbiased collection of scientificly supported descriptions of environmental problems and how to deal with them. It's also almost completely devoid of gloom and doom, as opposed to some of today's green movements. Very much recommended.

Schoolbook review.......2007-01-03

I found this book to be fairly well written with only a little bias toward evolution, an unproven scientific theory.

Reviews, anyone?.......2006-01-18

This is an excellent textbook, one that I have used in two of my Environmental Science classes (namely, Environmental Problems of Man [Bio 11], and Energy for the Future [Envi Sci 1].) While not completely without bias (which is mostly subtle, and not totally incorrect), the book offers a solid introduction to many environmental issues. The introduction chapter of the textbook states that environmental science is interdisciplinary, and the book is laid out accordingly. Chapters run the gamut from biology, chemisty, simple physics, and pure ecological common sense. An excellent purchase for any serious scientist and/or conscientious environmentalist.

Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions (with ThomsonNOW, InfoTrac® 1-Semester Printed Access Card)

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Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions (with ThomsonNOW, InfoTrac® 1-Semester Printed Access Card)
G. Tyler Miller
Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0495015989

Book Description

G. Tyler Miller's worldwide bestsellers have evolved right along with the changing needs of your diverse student population. Focused specifically on energizing and engaging all your students, Miller and new contributor Scott Spoolman have been at work scrutinizing every line--enhancing, clarifying, and streamlining to reduce word density as well as updating with the very latest environmental news and research. The resulting texts are shorter, clearer, and so engaging that your students will actually want to read their assignments. The Fifteenth Edition's engaging, streamlined coverage includes over 4,000 updates and new topics; hundreds of new "Thinking About" exercises that engage students in critical thinking about environmental science topics; "Core Case Studies" that reinforce chapter concepts; 127 new photos; and superb, integrated coverage of sustainability! New to this edition for instructors is PowerLecture, a one-stop shop for lecture prep that includes everything you need to create dynamic lectures all in one place.

Living in the Environment: With Infotrac : Principles, Connections, and Solutions

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Living in the Environment: With Infotrac : Principles, Connections, and Solutions
G. Tyler, Jr. Miller
Manufacturer: Breton Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0534519199

Book Description

This book treats environmental science as an interdisciplinary study, combining ideas and information from the natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, and geology, and from the social sciences such as economics, politics, and ethics to present a general idea of how nature works and how things are interconnected.

Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions

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The best of the introductory environmental science texts
Fantastic, educational reading+Dantes exam material
AWESOME TEXT!!
superb ecology intro....
Good Environmental Biology Text

Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions
G. Tyler Miller
Manufacturer: Brooks/Cole Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0534398073

Book Description

Miller's LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT is the book that defined the Environmental Science course. This significantly revised Twelfth edition incorporates the most talked-about and notable developments today, reflecting major shifts in environmental education and environmental policy.

Customer Reviews:

The best of the introductory environmental science texts.......2004-07-11

Of the half-a-dozen environmental science texts I read in preparing a 10th grade environmental science block, this is by far the best written, with the clearest figures. Highly recommended.

Fantastic, educational reading+Dantes exam material.......2004-02-10

I used this book for the DANTES test: Environment and Humanity, it covered everything that was asked on the test and I believe I passed because of it's great detail. It also changed the way I look at the world and how we treat it. Really really educational, I'm glad I was made to read it.

AWESOME TEXT!!.......2003-04-22

This is an awesome text especially for AP students and level 1 and 2 college students! It helped me score a 5 on the AP exam and test out of my first two semesters of Environmental Science.

superb ecology intro...........2001-11-11

....and a clearly written blend of ecology, systems theory, and environmental science, with interesting Enrichment sections and Guest Editorials by a variety of influential figures.

I like the "liberal" slant--in other words, the call to quit being the world's biggest consumer and polluter and create a sustainable society with more realistic values than the dream of unlimited expansion--but then I can't think of anything more insane than allowing the world to overheat so the oil empires can go on making money.

Anyway, major sections covered include:

Humans and Nature: An Overview
Some Concepts of Ecology
Population, Resources, and Pollution
Environment and Society

I'm glad I bought mine used; the publisher is nuts for charging this much money for a textbook, no matter how well-crafted.

Good Environmental Biology Text.......2000-04-29

I used this text book in my Environmental Biology course. I was prepared for another awful Science text book. The author of this book does a good job covering all the topics necessary. It is written well. The chapters are long, but that is because he doesn't leave out important material. It was expensive, but that's how text books are. And the cover is a nice bonus.

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Living in the Environment With Infotrac: Principles, Connections, and Solutions
Jr. Miller
Manufacturer: Brooks/Cole Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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